Advocate

It's a slate-gray, icy Sunday afternoon in Toronto, and light outside is obscure. Robert Gant wrapped a Queer as Folk night shoot at 7 A.M. and managed a few hours of sleep before trundling over to Hair of the Dog, a popular restaurant on Toronto's Church Street whose exterior would be familiar to any devotee of the show. Upstairs, Gant joins a better-rested Peter Paige, who's already settled at a table, sipping tea.

It's midway through the filming of Queer as Folk's third season - Gant's second season on the show - and the actors are happy to have a brief respite, even if it means a caffeine-fueled brunch with a writer, over the course of which no topic is off-limits, including, among other things, the definition of masculinity.

Even though Paige and Gant in person are at peace with their masculine and feminine sides, the characters they portray (Emmett and Ben, respectively) often represent Queer as Folk's extremes of nelly and butch. Amid a show that has forced gays to confront vital issues such as HIV-positive-HIV-negative relationships, body culture, sex obsession, drug use, ageism, fidelity, and parenthood, these two out actors have had to explore their own images of themselves and the communities in which they live.

Let's talk about the new season - it's unfolding in some interesting new directions. Where is the story going?

Paige: I think the third season is the best season by far. [Executive producers] Dan [Lipman] and Ron [Cowen] have said from the beginning that this is the story of boys becoming men. All of the characters have taken a step forward. The first season was "Meet these people and their world," the second season was "Look what's happening to these people!" and the third season is us [helping] each other grow up, challenging each other in these really intricate, intense relationships. It's about coming together and coming apart.